Mystic Meanderings: Short Tales of Wonder and Fantasy

By Kilmeny Reade

A sarcastic folklorist has it in for Fairyland...
Seven fairytale heroines will save themselves instead of waiting for someone else to do it...
And the search for Fairies goes on.

In this collection, you will find short stories and essays dealing the magic and wonder of fairyland. Anything can happen once you step through that mysterious portal...

Included in this anthology:

Dance the Kingdom Down (12 Dancing Princess's flashfiction)
Love is Not a Diamond (Toads and Diamonds flashfiction)
A Silence That Stings (The Wild Swans flashfiction)
I'd Rather Marry a Frog (Frog Prince flashfiction)
A True Reflection of Me (The Long-Nosed Prince flashfiction)
Wind Walker (Snow White and Rose Red flashfiction)
Wooden Cloak (Katie Woodencloak flashfiction)
Grubby Maids and Glass Slippers (Cinderella essay)
Gorgeous Girls and Beastly Folk (Beauty and the Beast essay)
Falling Into Fairland (a pocketbook on how to find fairies)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kilmeny Reade
• Release date: Sep 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386271352

Kilmeny Reade

KILMENY READE is an artist and a writer from the Ozark Mountains. She loves books, nature, family, chocolate, and unicorns (especially all together). Her main goal in life is to spend more time with her family, getting out in the woods as much as possible, and tell as many stories and create as much art as she can. You can find out more about her at www.kilmenyreade.wordpress.com

Book preview

Introduction

ALittle Note About This Collection

I’m must say, as I update this collection, I’m not sure what possessed me to put together this handful of items that really don’t seem to go together. They all deal with fantasy or fairytales or fairies in one way or another, but let’s face it...they’re really odd. A set of fairytale flashfics, a pocketbook about how to find fairies, and a couple of snarky fairytale essays—really, what was I thinking?

On second thought, I know very well what I was thinking. I was thinking, I may not have a bunch of stuff that fits into one genre, but I did enjoy writing them, and I might as well be putting out whatever I have ready! I was thinking, If I want more books out, why not bundle some of the shorter things into collections and anthologies?

And that’s how we ended up with this collection, my friends.

So, I know it’s a little odd. But it is fun, and dear to my heart. Treat it gently. Try not to laugh at it too much...it’s such a tiny ebook, it’s feelings could be so easily hurt!

And now I’m really uncomfortable with that attempt to personify a digital item. Forgive me, folks. Metaphors are hard.

Enjoy this collection everyone!

Dragon Saver

Idon’t want an adoring crowd of nobles, knights, and other annoying suitors distracting me from my mission. I’m Princess Teryn and I’m on a quest to save a dragon, just like a princess in the good old dragon days. You can’t be a true princess without doing something splendid like saving a dragon.

There’s just one little hitch though. I have to find a dragon first.

And dragons aren’t the easiest creatures to find these days. After searching most of my life I haven’t found so much as a leftover dragon scale! Today marks Dragon Search 199 (I keep careful count in my Dragon Search Journal).

Will I end up like Sayla, batting my eyelashes and tossing my curly red hair at the slobbering numbskulls around me?

No! Not I! For last night, I finally found something that will change the course of my entire quest.

A book.

I never would have found it if the traveling storyteller hadn’t come to our castle and told the legend of the first Dragon Princess, who healed a whole herd of dragons of stomach pains caused by the burning fire inside them. She searched till she found the ancient antidote that not only healed them, but transformed the flame into a misty silver radiance like liquid moonlight.

The storyteller later approached me. It seemed he knew I wanted to follow in the first Dragon Princess’ footsteps. Handing me a grey candle, he proclaimed, In the old library you will find the book with the answer you seek.

So I took the candle and searched the labyrinth that was the castle library. The candle proved a guide to the book—it dimmed every time I turned the wrong way. I soon found it. The book was old, dusty, crumbling and curling at the corners. Flaming red dragons wove around the heading that said in fancy script The Magic of Dragons. There was a dragon medallion dangling from its spine on a silver ribbon.

A thorough search of the book revealed it had the very spell I needed, but I would have to wait for a half moon to appear—which was this very night!

So before it got light, I left behind my mother, father, silly sister Sayla, and her sixty–seven suitors fluttering about her back in the castle. And now I’m searching for the perfect place to say the spell...

I stumble down the castle trail to the woods. Drat these skirts! I’m the clumsiest lass in the entire kingdom of Vallselyn. I pick myself up and hurry down the well–worn trail that leads to a clearing near the lake.

Kneeling beside a mossy stump and shaking fiery hair out of my eyes, I open the book and flip to the section titled ON CALLING TO THE NEEDY. Beneath the heading is written:

This spell will guarantee a helpless dragon finding you! The directions are simple:

In the time of the half moon, just before the sun rises, you must visit a forest vale near a lake. Hold this book in your left hand and clench the dragon medallion in your right. Then circle a mossy stump three times while chanting this phrase three times:

Dragons drag dripping dragonets down dipping dales.

Then wait for the dragon to come!

Will it work? I accidentally overslept and it’s only a few hours now till dawn (hey, I needed some sleep for this venture!). But the moon is still up, so I’m close enough, right?

I rise to my feet, muttering the phrase under my breath. I have to be sure and get it right!

Clenching the medallion in my fist, I dance around the stump, chanting, Dragons drag dripping dragonets down dipping dales.

I squeeze my eyes shut and careen around the stump. Dragons drag dripping dragonets down dipping dales.

Faster!

"Dragons drag dripping